Jason Hirschhorn and I hosted a screening for this documentary tonight. It’s a must see.
Takeaway: Teachers’ unions are what’s wrong with the education system, charter schools are working because they’re independent of the unions.
Clar, Ross and I were just having this discussion / coming to this conclusion.
Michelle Rhee, blah blah blah. But I do want to see this. I assume I’ll come away gratified (if not given a critical or alternative view), because I really don’t like teacher’s unions, and Guggenheim takes that point and runs with it.
Here’s my question, though…how to you measure the effectiveness of a teacher? In other words, how do you reward a teacher for being “good”? What was left unsaid yesterday (on Oprah, yes, I watched Oprah) was that the only way we currently have in place for measuring an effective teacher is through standardized test scores. If we continue to require our public school teachers to “teach to the test,” we are seriously harming our children and our educators.
I talked a bit about this with my students today in class—at a school where we have a 99% college accepatance rate—and one kid said that the only reason people go to college is “for all the parties.” Even his “parents [told him that] the only reason they went to college was to drink and party.”
What??
And what teacher wouldn’t love to work in an environment with motivated co-workers, engaged kids, and a positive atmosphere (like the charter schools featured yesterday)? I think many would thrive, would rise to the expectations set before them (both students AND teachers). The problem is more complicated that just teacher’s unions.
I love what I do. And I’m dang good at it, too. I want to help fix this mess in any way I can.